Five years ago, the local university built two new dormitories through different contractors: Aleph
Construction and Gimmel Builders. The buildings were nearly identical, though it cost Gimmel Builders
approximately 20 percent more to construct their dormitory. Aleph’s dormitory, however, has required
approximately 10 percent more in maintenance costs per year over the past five years. Therefore, to
construct their new dormitory with the lowest overall cost, the local university should hire Aleph
Construction.
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions in the expert’s claim. Be
sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the
argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
The argument states that for overall reduced costs for the newly planned dormitory, Aleph construction should be hired. While the argument could be true, it is rife with holes and assumptions. In reaching the conclusion that author draws from a fact five years before and assumes that it would hold good in the present. The claim of the author is highly weakened by the doubts casted on the validity of several assumption he make.
The foremost assumption is that since five years before Gimmel constructions cost for building was twenty percent more than that of Aleph's, Aleph remains to be the most economic contractor. A lot could have changed in five years. It is highly possible that the contractors would have changed the technologies they use in construction and that would have impacted the costs they accrue. Maybe they have changed their construction practices and revised their employee salaries. It is even possible that their policies on profit percentage has changed, which will have a marked effect on the prices they quote. Indeed a new company often times would discount their prices to gain customers and once they have a hold in the market, they will increase their profit margin. These all could affect the cost of construction in the present time. To validate this assumption it is required that their costs be compared on any recent constructions or by requesting quotations for the new dormitory. Even then there lies an unstated assumption that there are no other contractors available. Maybe it was the case five years ago. But chance for other players who would still be economically efficient cannot be ruled out without putting up the contract for an auction. Concluding that Aleph will be the best option to reduce construction cost will be a big mistake in any of the above said situations.
The author assumes that the two dormitories built five years before can be compared as they are identical. The term 'identical' is too vague to suggest something unambiguously. What are the identical aspects between the two? Is it just the shape or is it the size? Is it just the external appearance? Is the internal arrangement and the facilities provided the same? For example if the fixtures used inside are from different makers and of different quality the difference in their price alone could explain or even set off the assumed monetary benefit. To make the assumption strong enough to back the argument it should examined how far the buildings are similar and any chance of significant variations which could impact the cost should be ruled out.
On the other hand the author points out that the dormitory constructed by Aleph requires ten percent more annually on maintenance. This in fact if anything, casts doubt on the reduced 'overall cost'. To prove that it does not the expense on the maintenance should be researched. The assumption is that ten percent hike on the annual maintenance will not set off the twenty percent gain on the construction cost. This of course is an unwarranted assumption and while it could be that way without finding the actual figures of construction and maintenance cost, we don’t know whether it will bolster or weaken the argument. Even then it can be doubted whether a higher maintenance cost points to the necessity of an earlier reconstruction.
Even though the argument put forward by the author is interesting the assumptions that undergird the argument are flawed. As a result the argument is not strong enough to make a case for awarding the contract for the new construction to Aleph Construction.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-12-13 | Chiragzeel | 63 | view |
| 2019-10-31 | rehmanmuradali | 50 | view |
| 2018-11-13 | sunnyd | 63 | view |
| 2016-07-25 | jerald | 50 | view |
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Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 404, Rule ID: MANY_NN[1]
Message: Possible agreement error. The noun assumption seems to be countable; consider using: 'several assumptions'.
Suggestion: several assumptions
...by the doubts casted on the validity of several assumption he make. The foremost assumptio...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 1, column 426, Rule ID: HE_VERB_AGR[1]
Message: The pronoun 'he' must be used with a third-person verb: 'makes'.
Suggestion: makes
...n the validity of several assumption he make. The foremost assumption is tha...
^^^^
Line 3, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...idity of several assumption he make. The foremost assumption is that since fi...
^^^^^
Line 3, column 614, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Indeed,
...marked effect on the prices they quote. Indeed a new company often times would discoun...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...in any of the above said situations. The author assumes that the two dormitor...
^^^
Line 5, column 303, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...ze? Is it just the external appearance? Is the internal arrangement and the facili...
^^
Line 7, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...impact the cost should be ruled out. On the other hand the author points out ...
^^^
Line 9, column 1, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[2]
Message: “Even though” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...essity of an earlier reconstruction. Even though the argument put forward by the author ...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Discourse Markers used:
['but', 'if', 'may', 'so', 'still', 'then', 'while', 'for example', 'in fact', 'of course', 'as a result', 'on the other hand']
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance in Part of Speech:
Nouns: 0.223950233281 0.25644967241 87% => OK
Verbs: 0.172628304821 0.15541462614 111% => OK
Adjectives: 0.0777604976672 0.0836205057962 93% => OK
Adverbs: 0.054432348367 0.0520304965353 105% => OK
Pronouns: 0.0466562986003 0.0272364105082 171% => Less pronouns wanted. Try not to use 'you, I, they, he...' as the subject of a sentence
Prepositions: 0.116640746501 0.125424944231 93% => OK
Participles: 0.0435458786936 0.0416121511921 105% => OK
Conjunctions: 2.75126829501 2.79052419416 99% => OK
Infinitives: 0.0171073094868 0.026700313972 64% => OK
Particles: 0.00933125972006 0.001811407834 515% => OK
Determiners: 0.133748055988 0.113004496875 118% => OK
Modal_auxiliary: 0.0373250388802 0.0255425247493 146% => OK
WH_determiners: 0.00933125972006 0.0127820249294 73% => OK
Vocabulary words and sentences:
No of characters: 3595.0 2731.13054187 132% => OK
No of words: 599.0 446.07635468 134% => OK
Chars per words: 6.00166944908 6.12365571057 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.94716853372 4.57801047555 108% => OK
words length more than 5 chars: 0.345575959933 0.378187486979 91% => OK
words length more than 6 chars: 0.257095158598 0.287650121315 89% => OK
words length more than 7 chars: 0.180300500835 0.208842608468 86% => OK
words length more than 8 chars: 0.115191986644 0.135150697306 85% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.75126829501 2.79052419416 99% => OK
Unique words: 269.0 207.018472906 130% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.449081803005 0.469332199767 96% => OK
Word variations: 54.223865573 52.1807786196 104% => OK
How many sentences: 32.0 20.039408867 160% => OK
Sentence length: 18.71875 23.2022227129 81% => OK
Sentence length SD: 48.9263536955 57.7814097925 85% => OK
Chars per sentence: 112.34375 141.986410481 79% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.71875 23.2022227129 81% => OK
Discourse Markers: 0.375 0.724660767414 52% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.14285714286 97% => OK
Language errors: 8.0 3.58251231527 223% => Correct essay format wanted or double check grammar & spelling issues after essay writing.
Readability: 44.4282658598 51.9672348444 85% => OK
Elegance: 1.40340909091 1.8405768891 76% => OK
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.324723806881 0.441005458295 74% => OK
Sentence sentence coherence: 0.127937743257 0.135418324435 94% => OK
Sentence sentence coherence SD: 0.0946488249008 0.0829849096947 114% => OK
Sentence paragraph coherence: 0.516624365617 0.58762219726 88% => OK
Sentence paragraph coherence SD: 0.146633976789 0.147661913831 99% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.129175618021 0.193483328276 67% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0497234218125 0.0970749176394 51% => OK
Paragraph paragraph coherence: 0.497139966872 0.42659136922 117% => OK
Paragraph paragraph coherence SD: 0.0377289641781 0.0774707102158 49% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.227686025306 0.312017818177 73% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.046383140294 0.0698173142475 66% => OK
Task Achievement:
Sentences with positive sentiment : 11.0 8.33743842365 132% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.87684729064 131% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 12.0 4.82512315271 249% => Less neutral sentences wanted.
Positive topic words: 10.0 6.46551724138 155% => OK
Negative topic words: 6.0 5.36822660099 112% => OK
Neutral topic words: 8.0 2.82389162562 283% => OK
Total topic words: 24.0 14.657635468 164% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
---------------------
More arguments wanted.
Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 Out of 6 -- The score is based on the average performance of 20,000 argument essays. This e-grader is not smart enough to check on arguments.
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.